Police Officer
Murder Cases

Pulaski County, AR

James Dean Walker

Apr 16, 1963

James Dean Walker was convicted of murdering Police Officer
Jerrell Vaughn of North Little Rock. Walker and a companion, Russell
Kumpe, were at a Little Rock nightclub with two women, one of whom was Linda
Ford. Following an altercation at the club in which another patron was
shot, Kumpe, Walker, and Ford left in Kumpe's Oldsmobile. Kumpe drove,
while Walker sat in the passenger seat, with Ford sitting in the center. Police Officer Gene Barentine pursued and stopped the car and parked his
vehicle behind it. Officer Vaughan arrived on the scene almost
immediately thereafter, as did two cabdrivers.Read More by Clicking Here

Alameda County, CA

Huey P. Newton

Oct 28, 1967

Before any evidence was heard, many Americans believed that
Huey P. Newton, co-founder and “minister of defense” of the Black Panther
Party, had murdered a police officer in cold blood. Others were
equally certain that the charge was a trumped-up attempt to crush the
militant Black Panther Party.Read More by Clicking Here

Los Angeles County, CA

Daniel Kamacho

Mar 11, 1946

Daniel Kamacho was convicted of the murder of Deputy Sheriff
Fred T. Guiol. Guiol attended a movie with a friend, Miss Pearl
Rattenbury, and drove her to her home at 1117 Elden Ave. Before
Rattenbury could step out of the car, a young man armed with a gun wrenched
open the car door and demanded the occupants hand over their money. When Guiol reached for his gun, the man shot Guiol dead and ran off.Read More by Clicking Here

Los Angeles County, CA

Chance & Powell

Dec 12, 1973

Clarence Chance and Benny Powell were convicted the murder of
David Andrews, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer at a South
Central Los Angeles gas station. The murder occurred in the gas station
men's room reportedly during a robbery of the station. A four-year
investigation by Centurion Ministries, supported by the district attorney's
office, showed that the LAPD had coerced trial witnesses to lie against the
two men. The judge who freed Chance and Powell apologized to them. Both
defendants each served 17 1/2 years of life without parole sentences. Since
their release, each man has been awarded $3.5 million. (CM)

Siskiyou County, CA

Coke & John Brite

Aug 30, 1936 (Horse Creek)

Coke and John Brite, brothers, were convicted of the murders
of deputy sheriffs Martin Lange and Joseph Clarke, as well as the murder of
Captain Fred Seaborn, a U.S. Navy officer. The Brites, who were gold
prospectors, returned to a cabin on their rented land, where their parents
stayed, and then headed out again. At nightfall they set up camp on
the land of a neighbor, B. F. Decker, and went to bed. Two intruders
then entered their camp, another neighbor, Charley Baker, and his friend,
Fred Seaborn. At trial, Baker alleged they were looking for a strayed
horse that Baker owned. It was later learned that Baker had been using
the cabin on the Brites' property for rent-free storage and had motive to
drive the Brites from their land. Baker and Seaborn picked a fight
with the Brites, which proved to be a mistake as the Brites made quick work
of them. Baker then went to a judge and talked him into issuing
warrants charging the Brites with assault.Read More by Clicking Here

Siskiyou County, CA

Patrick Croy

July 17, 1978 (Yreka)

Patrick Eugene “Hooty” Croy was sentenced to death for the
murder of Bo Hittson, a Yreka police officer. A weekend of partying
led to an ill-fated shoot-out between police and a group of Native
Americans, including Croy. Croy was convicted of attempted robbery,
conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, assault, and the murder of
the police officer.

In 1985, the California Supreme Court overturned most of
Croy's convictions. The Court found that the trial judge had read the
wrong instructions to the jury, allowing the jury to convict Croy of robbery
even if he did not intend to steal. Because the murder conviction was
based on the theory that Croy had intentionally committed a robbery that had
caused the officer's death, the murder conviction was reversed.

At retrial in 1990, Croy's defense presented evidence that
Croy acted in self-defense during the shoot-out, including evidence that
Croy himself was shot twice during the altercation, expert testimony
regarding the antagonistic relationship between law enforcement and local
Native Americans at the time of the crime, and that Officer Hittson had a
blood alcohol level of .07 at his time of death. Croy was acquitted of
all charges for which he was tried, based on self-defense. The trial
court entered a finding that, if the conspiracy and assault charges had been
included in the retrial, Croy would have been acquitted of them as well. Croy was resentenced on these charges and was released on parole.

In 1997, Croy violated parole and was given an indeterminate
life sentence. In 2005, Croy's original conspiracy and assault
convictions were also overturned. The state decided not to appeal and
Croy was freed in Mar. 2005. He had served 19 years in prison, 7 of
them on death row. (85)
(Info) [6/08]

Broward County, FL

Tafero & Jacobs

Feb 20, 1976

Along with Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs and Walter Rhodes, Jesse
Joseph Tafero was convicted of murdering Florida highway patrolman Phillip
Black and visiting Canadian constable Donald Irwin at an I-95 rest stop. The conviction was based largely on the testimony of Rhodes, who named
Tafero as the shooter. The state withheld from the defense results of
a polygraph that indicated Rhodes had failed. The state also withheld
gunpowder test results that indicated Rhodes was the only person to have
fired a gun.

Rhodes recanted his testimony on three occasions in 1977,
1979, and 1982, stating that he, not Tafero, shot the policemen. A
statement from a prison guard corroborating Rhodes' recantations was
suppressed and found years later. Rhodes has since reverted to his
original testimony. The trial judge, “Maximum Dan” Futch, had been a
highway patrolman three years before the trial and wore his police hat to
work. He kept a miniature replica of an electric chair on his desk. He did not allow Tafero to call witnesses, nor would not allow him hearings
on this decision. Two eyewitnesses, testifying for the state, said
that while the shots were being fired, one officer was holding Tafero over
the hood of the car. Tafero was executed in the electric chair on May
4, 1990. Officials interrupted the execution three times because
flames and smoke shot out of his head.

Like Tafero, Jacobs was sentenced to death, but the sentence
was commuted to life imprisonment in 1981. In Jacobs' 1992 appeal, the
new evidence was presented which resulted in the reversal of her conviction. Had the evidence been found before Tafero's execution, it is highly probable
that his conviction would have been likewise overturned. Jacobs later
accepted a plea bargain in which she did not have to admit guilt and was
released. She affirms her innocence. A 1996 ABC TV movie was
made about the case entitled In the Blink of an Eye. (CWC) (NY
Times) [6/05]

Broward County, FL

Brown & King

Nov 13, 1990

Timothy Brown, a mentally retarded man, gave a garbled
confession to the murder of Broward Sheriff's Deputy Patrick Behan for which
he was convicted. In 2001, the Miami Herald questioned the
conviction in a series of investigative articles. In 2003, a judge
threw out Brown's confession and Brown was released on low bail. It
seems unlikely that he will be retried.

Brown's co-defendant, Keith King, also gave a confession after
being coerced, threatened, and punched by detectives. King served a
reduced sentence on a plea bargain to manslaughter and was free at the time
of Brown's release. (Miami
Herald) (AP
News) [9/05]

Duval County, FL

Leo Jones

May 23, 1981

Leo Jones, a black man, was convicted of the sniper killing of
white police officer Thomas Szafranski, 28, and sentenced to death. The main witness against Jones later recanted. Two key officers in the
case had left the Jacksonville Police Department under a cloud, and
allegations that one of them beat Jones before he supposedly confessed had
gained credence.

A retired police officer, Cleveland Smith, came forward and
said Officer Lynwood Mundy had bragged that he beat Jones after his arrest. Smith, who described Mundy as an “enforcer,” testified that he once watched
Mundy get a confession from a suspect by squeezing the suspect's genitals in
a vise grip. He said Mundy unabashedly described beating Jones. Smith waited until his 1997 retirement to come forward because he wanted to
secure his pension.

More than a dozen people had implicated another man as the
killer, saying they either saw him carrying a rifle as he ran from the crime
scene or heard him brag he had shot the officer. Even Florida Supreme
Court Justice Leander Shaw, who formerly headed a division of the state
attorney's office, wrote that Jones's case had become “a horse of a
different color.” Newly discovered evidence, Shaw wrote, “casts
serious doubt on Jones's guilt.” Shaw and one other judge voted to
grant Jones a new trial. But a five-judge majority ruled against
Jones. Jones was executed one week later in the electric chair on
March 24, 1998. (Chicago
Tribune) [11/05]

Leon County, FL

Quincy Five

Sept 18, 1970 (Tallahassee)

After Khomas Revels, an off-duty deputy sheriff, was murdered
during a robbery of Luke's Grocery store, Tallahassee police charged five
black men from Quincy, Florida with the crime. One of these men, David
Keaton, was an 18-year-old star football player with plans to enter the
ministry. Although he had an alibi, Keaton was held in custody for
more than a week. During that time he maintained he had been
threatened, lied to, and beaten until he confessed. He believed that
despite his confession, no jury would convict him when they heard his alibi. He was wrong. At trial his coerced confession was buttressed by the
false testimony of five eyewitnesses. Keaton was convicted and
sentenced to death. In his confession Keaton implicated Johnnie
Frederick, who was “clean as a whistle,” in the belief that a judge and jury
would see that his confession was false. Frederick was convicted as
well and sentenced to life in prison.

David Charles Smith and two other Quincy defendants still
awaited trial. In the meantime, a witness arose, Benjamin Franklin
Pye, who knew the actual men who committed the crime. The men were
from Jacksonville, not Quincy, though Pye knew only their street names. But he knew the motel where they had stayed, the dates, and the rental car
they drove. He was with them when they cased Luke's to rob it later. Pye gave this information to his attorney, who in turn relayed it to Smith's
attorney, Will Varn. Varn was a former U.S. attorney, and he was able
to get funds from the judge to hire an investigator who came up with names
to fit Pye's story. The names also fit the crime scene fingerprints
that had not matched any of the Quincy Five. The three Jacksonville
men were tried and convicted.

Despite the new evidence, the state continued to insist the
Quincy Five were guilty as well. When Smith came to trial, five white
eyewitnesses swore he was guilty. But Varn had the conflicting
fingerprints and convictions, Pye's testimony, and a good alibi for Smith. An all-white jury acquitted him. The Florida Supreme Court took note
and ordered new trials for Keaton and Frederick. The prosecution soon
dropped charges against Keaton and Frederick, as well as against the
remaining two Quincy defendants. Keaton and Frederick were released in
1973. In 1974 Tallahassee writer Jeffrey Lickson published a 142-page
book about the case entitled David Charles: The Story of the Quincy Five.
(SP Times)
(TWM)
(FLCC) (SPT1)
(SPT2)
(OSB)
(Papers) [3/07]

Chatham County, GA

Troy Davis

Aug 19, 1989 (Savannah)

Troy Anthony Davis, a black man, was sentenced to death for
the shooting murder of Mark Allen MacPhail, a white police officer. At
the time MacPhail, 27, was working off-duty as a security guard for a
Greyhound bus station. A homeless man, Larry Young, was being harassed
by an assailant for the can of beer that Young held in a paper sack. A
crowd of bystanders, some of whom spilled out a pool hall, followed the
fight as it progressed up Oglethorpe Ave. toward the bus station. The
assailant then pulled a pistol out of his pants and used it beat Young on
the head. Fearing for his life Young yelled for someone to call the
police, and Officer MacPhail responded. He was shot twice and died.

At trial Young identified Davis as the man who both assaulted
him and murdered MacPhail. Young has since recanted. “After I
was assaulted that night … some police officers grabbed me and threw me down
on the hood of the police car and handcuffed me. They treated me like
a criminal; like I was the one who killed the officer … They made it clear
that we weren't leaving until I told them what they wanted to hear. They suggested answers and I would give them what they wanted. They
put typed papers in my face and told me to sign them. I did sign them
without reading them.”

There was no physical evidence against Davis and the murder
weapon has never been found. The case against him depended entirely on
the testimony of nine prosecution witnesses. Since the trial seven of
the nine witnesses, including Young, have recanted their testimony. Many of the witnesses cited police pressure as the reason for their false
trial testimony.

Davis said he was one of the bystanders who came out of the
pool hall and watched the assailant torment Young. He stated he left
after the assailant threatened to shoot Young and he never looked back. He also stated he did not have a gun and that the assailant was one of the
remaining prosecution witnesses, Sylvester Coles. Coles was known as a
neighborhood bully. Davis's appeals lawyers could not locate the other
remaining witness. Davis was executed by lethal injection on September
21, 2011. (www.troyanthonydavis.org)
[7/07]

Greene County, GA

Robert Wallace

May 16, 1979

Robert Wallace was convicted and sentenced to death for the
murder of Thomas Rowry, a Union Point police officer. Wallace, who was
drunk, had been in a scuffle over a gun with a different officer when the
gun went off, killing the officer he was accused of murdering. The
prosecution argued that Wallace intentionally shot the victim officer. Upon
retrial in 1987, a jury acquitted Wallace. (PC)
[7/05]

Cook County, IL

Haymarket Eight

May 4, 1886

Eight men were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit
murder in connection with the death of police officer Mathias J. Degan. On May 1, 1886 there were general strikes throughout the United States in
support of an 8-hour workday. On May 3 there was a rally of striking
workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant in Chicago. This rally ended with police firing on the workers. Two workers died
although some newspaper accounts reported six fatalities.Read More by Clicking Here

Cook County, IL

Majczek & Marcinkiewicz

Dec 9, 1932

Joseph Majczek and Theodore Marcinkiewicz were convicted in
1933 of murdering Chicago police officer William D. Lundy. Lundy was
killed in a delicatessen-speakeasy at 4312 S. Ashland Ave. during an
apparent holdup. The main witness against the two was the owner of the
speakeasy. Police had threatened to prosecute her for violating
prohibition laws if she did not implicate the two men.

The case came to the attention of a Chicago Times
reporter in 1944 after Majczek's mother placed a classified ad offering a
$5,000 reward for information on Lundy's killers. The Times
did a front-page human-interest story on how the mother scrubbed floors on
her hands and knees six nights a week for over a decade to raise the money.

A Times researcher got a statement from Joseph
Majczek that said his trial judge met privately with him and promised him a
new trial. Normally the researcher would dismiss as preposterous a
claim that a judge would host a private conversation with a convicted
cop-killer, but the story reporter wondered aloud to him why Majczek was not
sent to the electric chair, the usual sentence for a cop-killer. Further research produced a compelling case for innocence. The judge
had not carried through on his promise because prosecutors had threatened
him that granting new trials would end his career in politics.

The Times crusaded for Majczek's exoneration and he
was pardoned in 1945. Marcinkiewicz was seemingly forgotten, but in
1950, he was legally exonerated through a state habeas corpus proceeding. The legislature later awarded $24,000 to Majczek and $35,000 to
Marcinkiewicz. The case
is the subject of a 1948 movie, Call Northside 777 starring Jimmy
Stewart. (Not Guilty) (CWC)
[12/05]

Suffolk County, MA

Ella Mae Ellison

Nov 30, 1973

Ella Mae Ellison was convicted of murder and armed robbery in
1974. The crime involved the robbery of Suffolk Jewelers, a pawnshop on
Washington St. in Roxbury. During the robbery, Detective John Schroeder, an
off-duty police officer, entered the store and attempted to thwart the
robbers. He was shot and killed. The 1997 Boston Police Headquarters is on
“One Schroeder Plaza,” named in honor of Schroeder and his brother Walter,
also an officer, who was killed responding to a bank alarm in 1970. In
1976, two key witnesses recanted their testimony against Ellison and claimed
she was innocent. In 1978, an appeals court vacated her convictions because
the prosecutor withheld evidence that could have exonerated her. Ellison
was released in 1978. (CIPM)
[4/08]

Hennepin County, MN

Leonard Hankins

Dec 16, 1932 (Minneapolis)

Leonard Hankins was convicted in 1933 of participating in the
murders of three people in the course of a bank robbery. The robbery
occurred at the Third Northwestern Bank in Minneapolis. Two police
officers, Ira L. Evans and Leo Gorski, were killed when they responded to
the robbery. A passerby was also killed. Following the robbery,
Hankins walked into a rooming house where one of the robbers had been
seized. Several witnesses said Hankins resembled the lookout man,
although one witness denied Hankins was the lookout man. Hankins
claimed he was getting a haircut at the time of the robbery. A barber
corroborated that claim.

The FBI later captured one the bank robbers, Jess Doyle, who
said Hankins had nothing to do with the robbery. Other members of the gang
also said Hankins had nothing to do with the robbery. In 1935, the FBI
advised the Minneapolis police of Hankins' innocence, but the local
authorities refused to release him because the FBI would not give them its
file on Doyle. Hankins spent another 15 years in prison before being
pardoned in 1951. In 1954, the state legislature awarded Hankins
$300/month for life for his wrongful imprisonment. [11/07]

Jefferson Davis County, MS

Cory Maye

Dec 26, 2001 (Prentiss)

Cory Maye, a black man, was sentenced to death for the murder
of a white police officer. One night while the 21-year-old Maye was
drifting off to sleep in front of a television, a violent pounding on his
front door awakened him. It sounded as though someone was trying to
break it down. He retrieved his handgun and went to the bedroom where
his 14-month-old daughter was sleeping and got down on the floor next to the
bed. He hoped the noises would go away, but they shifted around to the
back of the house, where after a loud crash, Maye's rear door was violently
flung open, nearly separating it from its hinges. After someone kicked
open the bedroom door, Maye fired three shots. The next thing Maye
heard is someone scream, “Police! Police! You just shot an
officer!” Maye then dropped his gun and surrendered. The shot
officer, Ron Jones, was wearing a bulletproof vest, but one of Maye's
bullets hit him just below the vest and proved fatal. Jones was the
son of the town's police chief.

Maye was severely beaten after his arrest. Police denied
this charge, but a press photo shows him with a swollen black eye. Maye's family was prohibited from seeing him for more than a week – long
enough for his bruises to heal. Police had raided Maye's duplex
because a reputed drug dealer – a person Maye had never met – lived in an
adjoining half of the duplex. A confidential informant said there were
large stashes of marijuana in both halves of the duplex. Only the
remains of a smoked joint were found in Maye's duplex. Maye had no
criminal record and police did not know his name prior to the drug raid. Maye's conviction has provoked outrage not only by liberals concerned about
racially charged Southern Justice, but also by conservative supporters of
the right to bear arms. Maye's death sentence was overturned in Sept.
2006. (Reason)
[4/07]

Wilkinson County, MS

Leon Chambers

June 14, 1969 (Woodville)

Leon Chambers was convicted of the murder of Sonny Liberty, a
police officer. Two Woodville police officers, James Forman and Aaron
“Sonny” Liberty, tried to arrest a local youth named C. C. Jackson at Hayes'
Café, a bar and pool hall on First West St. However, a crowd of 50 to
60 people gathered who frustrated their arrest attempt. Forman radioed
for backup and Liberty removed his riot gun, a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun,
from his patrol car.Read More by Clicking Here

St. Louis City, MO

Louis DeMore

Apr 29, 1934

Louis DeMore joked to police on the street that he fit the
description of a wanted killer and he was arrested. In May 1934, DeMore
confessed and pleaded guilty to the murder of Patrolman Albert Siko to
escape the death sentence that police threatened him with if he went to
trial. Gov. Park pardoned DeMore in Oct. 1934 after police caught another
man, George Couch, who was found with Siko's revolver and confessed to being the real killer.
(The Innocents) [10/05]

Hudson County, NJ

James Landano

Aug 13, 1976

Vincent James Landano was convicted of the murder of Police
Officer John Snow. On Aug. 13, 1976, two gunmen robbed the Hi-Way
Check Cashing Service in Kearny. One went inside, while the other
waited in a getaway car. As the robbery was in progress, John Snow, a
Newark police officer, arrived in his patrol car with an attaché case
containing $46,000 to be delivered to the business. Before Snow could
get out of his car, the outside gunman walked up to the patrol car and shot
Snow at point-blank range. The gunman then took the attaché case and
got into his car, while the the other gunman left the check-cashing service
with a cash drawer containing about $6,000. This gunman put the drawer
on the roof of the car and jumped into the back seat. The car sped
away leaving $6,000 fluttering in the air behind it.

A man arrested for the crime, Allen Rollo, admitted being the
inside gunman, and identified Landano as his partner, the one who shot Snow. Centurion Ministries discovered a hidden police report in which the only
eyewitness to the murder identified another man as the shooter. When
the case was retried, the jury deliberated for less than an hour and
acquitted Landano in 1989. Jurors later celebrated with him at a
victory party. (NY
Times) (CM)
[4/08]

Union County, NJ

George Merritt

July 16, 1967 (Plainfield)

In the midst of a five-day race riot, a white Plainfield
patrolman, John V. Gleason, Jr., 39, shot and wounded a black youth who
allegedly had attacked him with a hammer. He was surrounded by an angry mob
of blacks and was beaten, stomped, and shot to death with his own service
revolver. Of 12 defendants put on trial, two were convicted including
George Merritt. The case against Merritt rested solely on the testimony of
one witness, Donald Frazier. Frazier testified that Merritt assaulted
Gleason with a meat cleaver, but the wounds on Gleason were not indicative
that such a weapon was used on him, nor was this weapon found. Merritt's
conviction was reversed in 1972 and 1976, but he was reconvicted after each
reversal. Following Merritt's third conviction, a pretrial police interview
with Frazier surfaced that was completely at odds with his trial testimony. The prosecutor had withheld this document from Merritt's defense. Because
of this document, Merritt's conviction was again reversed in 1980, but this
time charges against him were dropped. (NY
Times) (72)
(80) (MOJ)
[7/09]

Bernalillo County, NM

Van Bering Robinson

Sept 10, 1980

Van Bering Robinson was convicted of murdering Albuquerque
Police Officer Phil Chacon. Chacon was gunned down on his motorcycle at
Wyoming Blvd. and Central Ave. while pursuing a vehicle driven by a man who
had just robbed a Kinney's shoe store. Robinson was exonerated in 1983
after it was found that three Albuquerque police officers falsified
information to frame him for the murder. Robinson was awarded $75,000 in
1985. (Appeals)
[9/05]

New York County, NY

Harry Cashin

Feb 19, 1931

Harry F. Cashin was convicted of the murder of Detective
Christopher W. Scheuing during the holdup of a speakeasy at 49 Lexington
Avenue. Cashin was sentenced to death. His conviction was due to the
testimony of Gladys Clayton, a woman of shady character. The prosecution
concealed from the defense a witness who said Cashin was not “the right
man.” On appeal, Cashin's conviction was reversed. The charges were
dropped in 1933 when Clayton admitted that Cashin had nothing to do with the
murder. (ISI)
(News Articles) (Archives) [4/08]

New York County, NY

Isidore Zimmerman

Apr 10, 1937

Isidore Zimmerman was sentenced to death for the shooting
murder of a police detective, Michael Foley, during an armed robbery of the
Boulevard Restaurant at 144 Second Ave. A gang of six, dubbed the “East
Side Boys” by the press, had robbed the restaurant. Zimmerman was not
present at the robbery, but was convicted for allegedly supplying the gun
used in the murder. He was cleared in 1962 after it was revealed that a
government witness perjured himself when he testified that Zimmerman
provided the gun. Zimmerman was awarded $1 million for 24 years of wrongful
imprisonment.

Clinton County, OH

Clarence McKinney

Feb 14, 1922 (Wilmington)

Late in the evening, Wilmington police officers Henry Adams
and Emory McCreight were patrolling an alley skirting the post office on
Main Street when they heard a racket at the back of the Murphy and Benham
hardware store. After approaching the area, the officers saw two
shadowy figures against the building. Unbeknownst to the officers, the
two were cutting their way through the rear door of the hardware store.Read More by Clicking Here

Franklin County, OH

Allen Thrower

Aug 28, 1972 (Columbus)

Allen Thrower was convicted of the shotgun murder of Columbus
Police Officer Joseph Edwards. In 1978 the Internal Affairs Bureau of the
Columbus Division of Police determined that Detective Tom Jones Sr. had
acted egregiously during the investigation of Thrower. Thrower was released
from prison in 1979. [12/06]

Seminole County, OK

Paul Goodwin

July 4, 1936

Paul Goodwin was convicted of the murder of Officer
Christopher C. Whitson of the Seminole Police Department. Another man,
Horace Lindsay, gave a statement in which he confessed to shooting Whitson. Lindsay also led police to the location where he had hidden Whitson's gun. Some time later Lindsay gave a second statement in which he implicated
Goodwin as the shooter, but he refused to testify against Goodwin at his
trial. At Goodwin's trial, Lindsay's second statement was read into
evidence before the jury by the Chief of Police of Seminole County. Goodwin
was permitted no opportunity to cross-examine Lindsay, nor was he permitted
to introduce Lindsay's earlier statement which contradicted the presented
statement. Although paroled in 1961, Goodwin was reincarcerated in 1962 on
a parole violation. In 1969 Goodwin was released from prison after the 10th
Circuit Federal Court ruled that he was denied due process. (Appeals) (Seminole
PD) (ISI)
[10/09]

Philadelphia County, PA

Bilger & Sheeler

Nov 23, 1936

Philadelphia patrolman James T. Morrow was murdered while
tracking down a suspected robber who had been terrorizing the northeast
section of the city. Police, in efforts to solve the murder, arrested and
extracted confessions from three different men over a several year period. Two of the men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison before being
exonerated.Read More by Clicking Here

Colleton County, SC

Michael Linder

June 29, 1979

Michael Linder was sentenced to death for murdering Willie
Peeples, a highway patrol officer. Linder contended he acted in
self-defense because the officer had groundlessly fired six shots at him. At trial the prosecution presented expert witnesses who testified that the
officer never fired his gun. At a retrial the defense secured previously
undisclosed ballistics evidence from the state crime lab and was able to
prove that the officer had fired his gun and that the prosecution's
witnesses had distorted other evidence to make it appear that Linder had
been the aggressor. Linder was acquitted at his retrial and released in
1981. (NY Times)
[7/05]

Dillon County, SC

Warren Douglas Manning

Oct 29, 1988

Warren Douglas Manning was convicted of pistol whipping and
shooting to death George T. Radford, a state highway trooper. Manning was
sentenced to death. The trooper was shot at close range with his own
revolver. The defense argued that although the trooper arrested Manning for
driving with a suspended license, Manning escaped when the officer stopped
another car. The defense also claimed that if Manning had shot the officer,
he would have been covered in blood. Witnesses who saw Manning minutes
after the shooting noticed no blood on him. A retrial resulted in a hung
jury, but Manning was reconvicted at a third trial. This reconviction was
overturned and a fourth trial resulted in a mistrial. At Manning's fifth
trial, his new lawyer told the jury, “The law requires the state prove him
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Without that, the law says you cannot
find him guilty.” The fifth trial jury acquitted Manning of all charges.
[9/05]

Shannon County, SD

Leonard Peltier

June 26, 1975 (Oglala)

(Federal Case) In Feb. 1973, 200 American Indian
Movement (AIM) activists launched a 72-day occupation of Wounded Knee, SD
(Site of an 1890 American Indian massacre) to protest living conditions at
the Pine Ridge reservation. During the next three years, the FBI
carried out intensive local surveillance, as well as the repeated arrests,
harassment, and bad-faith legal proceedings against AIM leaders and
supporters. In 1975, two FBI agents entered the reservation and with
tensions being high managed to provoke a firefight between themselves and
local Indians. Both FBI agents as well as Indians were killed. To avenge the death of the two agents, the government issued arrest warrants
against four men, including Leonard Peltier. It dropped charges
against one and tried two, but during the trial a key prosecution witness
admitted that he had been threatened by the FBI and as a result had changed
his testimony upon the agents' instructions, so as to support the
government's position. The two defendants were acquitted.

Peltier was in Canada and to get him extradited the government
submitted an affidavit from a mentally unstable woman who claimed to have
been Peltier's girlfriend, and to have been present during the shootout, and
to have witnessed the murders. In fact, she did not know Peltier, nor
was she present at the time of the shooting. She later confessed she
had given the false statement after being pressured and terrorized by FBI
agents. At Peltier's trial, the government withheld thousands of
documents. It presented coerced witnesses; though none placed Peltier
at the murder scene before the murders occurred or claimed Peltier shot the
two agents. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences.

Shelby County, TN

Phillip Workman

Aug 5, 1981 (Memphis)

Phillip Workman robbed a Wendy's restaurant with a .45 caliber
semi-automatic pistol. On leaving, police officers gave chase and
Workman tripped on a curb. He yelled, “I give up!” and tried to pull
his gun from his pants to give to officers. As he tried to surrender
his weapon, he was hit on the head with a flashlight. At that moment
his pistol went off, aimed straight up at the sky. Suddenly he was
surrounded by gunfire, and he tried to run again, but tripped and his gun
went off, firing another shot into the air. Workman escaped the
immediate melee, but a civilian found him hiding under a truck. He was
covered with blood from his head wound, and had a shotgun wound to his
buttocks.

At the scene of the shootout, a police officer, Lt. Ronald
Oliver, lay dying from a bullet that passed completely through his body. Oliver would soon be dead. Workman was convicted of Oliver's murder
and sentenced to death. In 1990, exculpatory ballistic evidence was
discovered that showed that Oliver was not shot by a bullet from Workman's
gun. Instead, Oliver must have been killed by “friendly fire.” An eyewitness at trial, Harold Davis, recanted testimony that he had seen
the shooting. The police report on the crime scene never noted Davis's
presence and five other people near the scene do not remember seeing Davis.

A civilian eyewitness, Steve Craig, who never testified at
trial, said he saw Officer Parker fire a shotgun at Workman. Craig
also stated that police told him, “There was no need to talk about this ...
unless it was with someone from the department.” In the trial
transcript, Officers Stoddard and Parker repeatedly testified that only two
people fired guns, Workman and Oliver. Ballistics and Craig's
statements imply Officers Stoddard and Parker committed perjury. The
new evidence caused Workman's scheduled execution date to be postponed
several times. Workman was executed by lethal injection on May 9,
2007. (Justice:
Denied) [1/07]

Cameron County, TX

Leonel Torres Herrera

Sept 29, 1981

Leonel Torres Herrera was sentenced to death for murdering two
police officers, David Rucker and Enrique Carrisalez. The murders
occurred at separate locations along a highway between Brownsville and Los
Fresnos. Enrique Hernandez, Carrisalez's patrol car partner,
identified Herrera. Hernandez also said Herrera was only person in the
car that they stopped. Carrisalez, who did not die until 9 days after
he was shot, identified Herrera from a single photo. A license plate
check showed that the stopped car belonged to Herrera's live in girlfriend.

In 1984, after Herrera's brother Raul was murdered, Raul's
attorney came forward and signed an affidavit stating that Raul told him he
had killed Rucker and Carrisalez. A former cellmate of Raul also came
forward and signed a similar affidavit. Raul's son, Raul Jr., who was
nine at the time of the killings, signed a third affidavit. It averred
that he had witnessed the killings. Jose Ybarra, Jr., a schoolmate of
the Herrera brothers, signed a fourth affidavit. Ybarra alleged that
Raul Sr. told him in 1983 that he had shot the two police officers. Herrera alleged that law enforcement officials were aware of Ybarra's
statement and had withheld it in violation of Brady v. Maryland. Armed
with these affidavits, Herrera petitioned for a new trial, but was denied
relief in state courts. One court did dismiss Herrera's Brady claim
due to lack of evidence. Herrera's appeal eventually reached the U.S.
Supreme Court, where it was argued in Oct. 1992.

In Jan. 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that Herrera's actual
innocence was not a bar to his execution. He had to show that there
were procedural errors in his trial in order to gain relief. Justice
Rehnquist wrote that the “presumption of innocence disappears” once a
defendant has been convicted in a fair trial. Dissenting Justice
Blackmun wrote: “The execution of a person who can show that he is
innocent comes perilously close to simple murder.” Herrera was
executed four months after the ruling on May 12, 1993. (Herrera
v. Collins) [1/07]

Dallas County, TX

Randall Dale Adams

Nov 28, 1976

Randall Dale Adams was sentenced to death for the murder of
police officer Robert Wood. Evidence in the case pointed to David Ray
Harris. However, Harris was for some reason an unsatisfactory suspect
to police. Police may not have wished to charge him because he was
16-years-old and under Texas law could not be sentenced to death. At
Adams' trial, Harris named Adams as the shooter, and Harris was soon back on
the streets. A prosecution psychologist, Dr. James Grigson, told
Adam's jury that Adams would remain an ongoing menace if kept alive. Grigson was known as Dr. Death, after having testified in more than 100
trials that resulted in death sentences.

In 1985, a young filmmaker, Errol Morris, came to Dallas to
work on a documentary about Grigson. When he met Adams, Morris thought
he was an unlikely killer and decided to take a closer look. Morris
soon discovered that Harris had been compiling a criminal record of some
magnitude. Morris discovered other problems with several witnesses who
testified at Adams' trial. Because of such evidence, Adams was granted
a hearing for a retrial. At the hearing in 1989, David Harris admitted
that he was the killer. An appeals court overturned Adams' conviction,
holding that prosecutor Douglas D. Mulder withheld a statement a witness
gave to the police that cast doubt on her credibility and allowed her to
give perjured testimony. Further, the court found that after Adams'
attorney discovered the statement late in Adams' trial, Mulder falsely told
the court that he did not know the witness's whereabouts. Adams'
conviction was overturned and the prosecution dropped charges. His
case is profiled in the documentary
The Thin Blue Line. (CWC)
[1/06]

Harris County, TX

Ricardo Aldape Guerra

July 13, 1982

Ricardo Aldape Guerra, a Mexican national, was sentenced to
death for the murder of James D. Harris, a Houston police officer. Harris was killed during a routine traffic stop. The gun that killed
Harris was found on Roberto Carrasco some hours later, after Carrasco was
killed in a shootout with police. Guerra, a 20-year-old acquaintance
of Carrasco, was riding in the car with Carrasco when Harris was killed. Police theorized that Guerra shot Harris and later traded guns with
Carrasco. Guerra's fingerprints were not found on the gun, but five
eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter.

Beginning in 1994, evidence emerged that police and
prosecutors had systematically intimidated and manipulated the eyewitnesses
into identifying Guerra as Harris's killer. During a federal appeal,
these witnesses testified that they had perjured themselves because they
feared police and prosecutors. Guerra's conviction was overturned in
Nov. 1994. The state delayed justice by appealing the ruling, but
ultimately released Guerra in Apr. 1997, as they had no intimidated
witnesses with which to retry him. Upon release, Guerra returned to
Mexico where he was the subject of a book, a feature film and at least one
popular song and music video. (NCR) [2/07]

Petersburg, VA

Silas Rogers

July 18, 1943

Silas Rogers was sentenced to death for the shooting murder of
Robert B. Hatchell, a police officer. Two police officers chased a
stolen car through Petersburg, VA and forced it into a ditch. The
driver escaped on foot and was pursued by one officer, R. B. Hatchell. The other officer stayed behind to guard the car's two passengers. The
passengers were two AWOL soldiers. A half-hour later, two shots rang
out and Officer Hatchell was found dead.

Police then combed the area and picked up a black hitchhiker
named Silas Rogers. They got Rogers to confess that he had stolen the
car in Raliegh, NC and had shot the cop. A judge would not allow
Rogers' confession to be used at trial because there was clear evidence that
it was obtained through third degree methods. However, at trial the
soldiers identified Hatchell as the man who picked them up in the stolen
car. Rogers was convicted.

The NAACP reviewed the case and thought the evidence was weak. They found a witness who corroborated Rogers' story that he arrived in
Petersburg by train. As a result Rogers' death sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment. Then a fellow convict told Rogers of Argosy
magazine's “Court of Last Resort,” an investigative agency that worked to
free wrongfully convicted inmates. Rogers wrote to Argosy and
got them to work on his case. Jack Kirkpatrick, an editorial writer
for the Richmond News-Leader also began an investigation. Working with Argosy, Kirkpatrick assembled a mass of evidence and
affidavits to show the two soldiers had perjured themselves at Rogers'
trial.

The soldiers testified that they shared cigarettes with Rogers
in the stolen car. However, Kirkpatrick proved that Rogers never
smoked. He also proved that Rogers could not have driven the stolen
car, as he had never learned to drive. The only remaining piece of
evidence against Rogers was testimony that his coat was found in the stolen
car. When an Argosy investigator found and questioned the
witness who gave that testimony, the witness quickly changed his story and
acknowledged that Rogers' coat was brown while the coat found in the stolen
car was blue. Virginia Governor Battle pardoned Rogers on Dec. 23,
1952. (Argosy)
(Time)
[7/07]

Milwaukee County, WI

Laurie Bembenek

May 28, 1981

Lawrencia Bembenek, also known as Bambi, was convicted of
murdering Christine Schultz, her husband's ex-wife. Bambi's husband
Fred Schultz was a police officer as was his ex-wife. Bambi had become
a police officer and was stunned by the amount of graft going on in the
department: officers selling pornography from their cars, accepting oral sex
from hookers, frequenting drug hangouts, and harassing minorities.Read More by Clicking Here

Jamaica

Dixon & Sangster

Sept 18, 1996

“Randall Dixon and Mark Sangster were wrongly convicted on
July 9, 1998 of murdering a policeman during the robbery of a a Western
Union branch in Spanish Town, Jamaica of $18 million in September 1996. Their convictions were based on their identification in a line-up by two
policemen who witnessed the robbery. Sangster was sentenced to life for
non-capital murder, and Dixon was sentenced to death by hanging for capital
murder. After their convictions the men learned that the prosecution had
failed to disclose to them that they did not appear on the film of the
robbers recorded by a security camera in the Western Union branch. Eyewitnesses saw four robbers, and neither man was among the four robbers
captured by the security camera. The men appealed their convictions to the
Privy Council in London, which is the highest court of appeal for Jamaica,
and on October 7, 2002, their convictions were set aside and their sentences
were quashed. On October 8, 2003, Jamaica's Court of Appeal ordered
judgments of acquittal for both men and they were released after seven years
of wrongful imprisonment. In 2005 the men sued the government of Jamaica
for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, breach of their
constitutional rights and for exemplary and aggravated damages. In October
2007 Mark Sangster was awarded $13,450,500, and Randal Dixon was awarded
$13,192,500. [$71 Jamaican = $1 U.S. in 2007]” –
FJDB (Jamaica
Observer)

England

William Habron

Aug 1, 1876

William Habron was convicted of the murder of Constable Cock, a local
lawman. Habron was a patron of the Royal Oak, a pub near
Manchester that was on the constable's beat. Habron was frequently getting
into fights with other patrons, which Cock had to break up. After one
fight Cock threatened to arrest Habron the next time he got into a fight. Habron replied, “It'll be a sorry day for you, the day you arrest me.” The next time Cock passed the pub and heard sounds of a fight, he entered
without waiting to be called and saw Habron and another patron in the midst
of a fight. Cock arrested Habron. However, Habron had actually been on
his best behavior. The other patron had interpreted Habron's
behavior as a sign of weakness and, inspired by liquor, decided that it was
a good time to pick a fight.Read More by Clicking Here

Related Case: Murder of a Judge Acting as a Custody Officer

Mercer County, WV

Payne Boyd

May 30, 1918 (Modoc)

In 1918, a black coal miner named Cleveland Boyd was convicted
on vagrancy complaints. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $25. The judge who convicted him, Squire H. E. Cook, and a deputy sheriff, A. M.
Godfrey, then prepared to take him to the jail at Matoaka. Boyd, however,
pleaded to stop at his home about 100 yards away where he could exchange his
new shoes for older, more comfortable ones. On stopping at his home, Boyd
retrieved a revolver and shot the judge twice, mortally wounding him. The
deputy sheriff fled for his life. Boyd fled into the hills and escaped
capture.Read More by Clicking Here

Related Case: Attempted Murder Case

Berrien County, MI

Maurice Carter

Dec 20, 1973

Maurice Carter was convicted of the attempted murder of Thomas
Schadler, an off-duty Benton Harbor police officer. Schadler was
shopping with his wife at the Harbor Wig and Record Shop on East Main Street
in Benton Harbor when a man suddenly and without provocation pulled a
.22-caliber pistol and shot him six times. There were twelve
eyewitnesses to the crime.Read More by Clicking Here